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Worst case scenario confirmed on driveshaft. Not serviceable - u-joints are all staked. Having a 2-piece driveshaft custom fabbed with new genuine Nissan CSB, but serviceable u-joints. (Thanks for the heads up Urbanengineer, but I'm trying to keep the car original where possible.)
On the bright side, I believe I found out why the u-joints failed. There is a stream of grease on the trans tunnel right where each u-joint is located. It gets hot in a Phoenix garage. I guess the grease just melted out.
Agreed. That's an AZ car for you. I spend a few weeks a year in the greater Phoenix area, and each time I run into some '70s or '80s Japanese import that I no longer see in New England. The paint may be baked pretty well from the sun, but no rust. One that sticks out in my memory is an '80/'81 Datsun 210 wagon I saw with rust free rear fenders. My parents had bought one brand new back then, and it didn't stay rust free for very long.
Actually, there's some surface rust on the cross-braces where they scraped something a bit...
Bit of a saga to report here.
I installed the Z1 diff bushings. I followed the removal procedures outlined in the links above - drill out rubber, sawzall race, hammer race out (air hammer worked great!). Froze Z1 bushings for a few hours. Z1 instructions for the rear say to pound the inner sleeve into the installed bushing, but I used all-thread, washers, and nuts instead to draw it in with more precision. Ears went in by hand. I confirmed with Z1 that the pics below reflect correct install. Also note that the rear sleeve design is different from what is pictured on their site. Z1 confirmed it's the current, right part.
I then installed my new driveshaft and dropped the car. But when I pulled out of the driveway, the tink noise was still there. I had assumed the noise was caused by the blown diff bushing and/or notchy ujoints, so I didn't research it. I quickly found all the threads about axle click. I loosened the axle nuts, pushed the axle in, sprayed lithium grease in the exposed back side as best I could, and put as much torque as I could - and some red loctite - on the axle nut. Tink gone!
Oh well, I thought, that's what happens when you assume, and at least I don't have to worry about the driveshaft. But on the first test drive at speed, I had a vibration. It started at 40, increased with speed, and by 80 was rattling interior trim. I parked the car. I called the driveshaft shop. I have used them many times before. They are one of the most respected shops in the country, and have built driveshafts for Overhaulin', Monster Garage, and many race teams. They said to bring the car in and they would check it out and "give me guidance." Did not like the sound of that. And they are 60 miles away - halfway to San Diego. I was worried they would try to blame something else - if not the installer (me), then the non-factory diff bushings.
My brain seized on the front diff bushings - the ears. In hindsight, they seemed thinner/shorter than the originals. I had kept the original bushings, so I measured their height (see pic below - the ruler is a bit thicker than the factory formed washer, but not by much) - 21mm. I emailed Z1, noting that I have a vibration, wanted to confirm that their bushings didn't change my pinion angle, and asked them for the height of their bushings. They responded: "Yes the accurate pinion angle is still retained with these bushings." But no height measurement was provided. So I responded asking again for that measurement. Crickets. So I jacked the car up and measured - 15mm. Still crickets from Z1 despite a second email.
The factory bottom washers - which are not used with the Z1 bushings - are 5mm thick, so I installed them above the bushings to try to get the diff closer to the factory angle. But I still had a vibration.
Unfortunately, without seeking or obtaining my consent, the driveshaft shop had cut my original driveshaft up to make the new one. They told me my original driveshaft was a "doorstop" and "garbage," but turns out they needed the "Companion Flange" that mounts the CSB - everything else was unusable because the u-joints were staked. After lots of thought, I decided to buy a driveshaft off ebay. I could write a whole other thread on that alone. Suffice it to say that after swapping out my new custom driveshaft for one off ebay, my vibration is gone. I just finished this work and have yet to follow up with the shop.
The moral of the story: ALWAYS RESEARCH EVERYTHING FIRST!!! Had I found the axle click threads, I would have just done the rear diff bushing, and called it a day.
And driveline is back to silky smooth. Here's the rest of that story: The first ebay driveshaft was in very good condition - that is, before the seller left it out in the rain. When it arrived, contrary to seller's pics, the slip yoke was heavily rusted. Seller initially claimed it was "just surface rust," but escalating with ebay fixed that. Got a full refund. Seller told me to just keep it, rather than paying for return shipping. Second ebay driveshaft was not in that great shape (and was super cheap). Although it was good enough to confirm that the custom driveshaft had to be bad due to vibration (worked things out ok with that shop, but will not be using him again), within a week I had problems. Car is parked in a sloped driveway, and one morning, after starting the car, I noticed that the car wouldn't move despite being in neutral / ebrake off. When I put it in 1st and let the clutch out a little, I heard and felt a thud in the driveline, and the car started rolling. The CSB was bad, and allowed the driveshaft to bind so much that it prevented the car from rolling down a hill! So I took my original front half, and the first ebay back half, had that assembly balanced (at a different shop), and put it in (I can now do that swap in about an hour). All fixed!
So literally the day after my last post, the passenger door lock actuator completely failed, despite that it had been working fine for months. So I replaced it, and the passenger door detent, with genuine parts.
My luck with this car has not been great. Beyond what's documented above, and despite the few hundred miles I've driven it, I've nearly been hit twice - almost T-boned when a car ran a stop sign, and almost hit head-on when a car ran a red light (not a yellow - I was at a 3-way intersection turning left with a green arrow, and the car opposing me just hit the gas and drove straight at me - had to slam on the brakes and turn right to avoid being hit) - and then a few days after I fixed the door lock actuator, a piece of heavy cardboard flew out from under a car ahead of me in the next lane, spun into the air away from us, then flew back across two lanes and right into my bumper cover.
And then there's one fact about this car that I forgot about in the 15 years since I sold my original G - I don't fit in it. I'm over 6' and my head hits the headliner, enough that I have to open the sunroof shade and lean to the center of the car while driving.
So I'm putting the car up for sale. Will link to the FS thread when I get it up. I washed the car and it's been sitting under two car covers since the cardboard incident. I'll drive it around the block weekly, but that's it until it's sold.
12-06-2018, 12:12 PM
